Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are teaming to direct and produce three back-to-back features based on Georges Remi’s beloved Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin for DreamWorks. Pics will be produced in full digital 3-D using performance capture technology.

The two filmmakers will each direct at least one of the movies; studio wouldn’t say which director would helm the third. Kathleen Kennedy joins Spielberg and Jackson as a producer on the three films, which might be released through DreamWorks Animation.

Tintin has long been a passion project for Spielberg, who has been trying to get film rights to the comedic and adventurous book series for more than 25 years, a goal realized over the past year. With the rights in place, Spielberg, Jackson and DreamWorks began quietly developing the project.

Jackson’s New Zealand-based WETA Digital, the f/x house behind “The Lord of the Rings” franchise, produced a 20-minute test reel bringing to life the characters created by Remi, who wrote under the pen name of Herge.

“Herge’s characters have been reborn as living beings, expressing emotion and a soul which goes far beyond anything we’ve seen to date with computer animated characters,” Spielberg said.

“We want Tintin’s adventures to have the reality of a live-action film, and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live-action format would simply not honor the distinctive look of the characters and world that Herge created,” Spielberg continued.

I take issue with Jeff on the design of Monster House (but completely agree on Polar Express). There’s no reason to lump the two together to prove your point. Monster House was really well designed. In visual terms, it was one of the best animated film of the year.

Here’s hoping Spielberg will help Jackson keep the film tight and fast-paced. Because, despite the fact that King Kong was an obvious labor of love, Jackson was too close to the material and couldn’t help adding a bunch of extraneous stuff that made it about 15 minutes too long.